Tag: Elijah Collins

Former Michigan State running back Elijah Collins transferring to Oklahoma State

Elijah Collins is transferring to Oklahoma State

Elijah Collins became a fan favorite at Michigan State football after rushing for 988 yards back in 2019. On Saturday, he announced that he will be officially taking his services to another program, when he posted on social media that he will be transferring to Oklahoma State.

This is an interesting bit of transfer news, as Collins ultimately makes a relatively lateral move to another major Power-5 program, where he will have an opportunity to showcase his skills on a big stage.

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.

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Michigan State football RB Elijah Collins enters NCAA transfer portal

Elijah Collins has entered the transfer portal

The saga of running back Elijah Collins’ time with Michigan State football is coming to an end. On Wednesday, a team spokesman announced that Collins has entered the NCAA transfer portal. Collins will have one year of eligibility left to spend with another program.

Collins, a beloved member of the Spartans’ program, had an extremely unique journey with MSU. In 2019, he burst onto the scene, rushing for 988 yards and five touchdowns. Unfortunately, medical issues related to COVID derailed his career for a few seasons, but he was able to return looking somewhat closer to his old self in 2022, where he rushed for 318 yards on 70 carries.

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.

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MSU football announces 2022 ‘season captains’ as voted by team

See who the Spartans voted as their 2022 season captains

With the 2022 season in the books, Michigan State football has announced their season captains.

Every week the Spartans would have rotating captains, and on Monday they revealed who the team voted as the overall season captains. Check out who those four players are below:

Mel Tucker, Michigan State football players comment on heartbreaking loss to Indiana

Mel Tucker, Michigan State football players comment on heartbreaking loss to Indiana

Michigan State football had one of their uglier losses in recent history on Saturday when they gave up a huge lead to Indiana and lost in double-overtime to a struggling Hoosiers squad.

After the game, Mel Tucker, Payton Thorne, Elijah Collins and more spoke to the media about the game.

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Andrew Brewster on Twitter @IAmBrewster.

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Michigan State football announces Week 2 captains

MSU has announced their weekly captains for a Week 2 contest against Akron

As fans have grown accustomed to, Michigan State changes captains each week, going with a player-led weekly captain approach.

The team’s Twitter account announced who will lead the team as captains in the Spartans’ Week 2 contest against the Akron Zips.

Leading the team on offense will be Jayden Reed. On defense, it will be Jacoby Windmon. On special teams, Elijah Collins will lead the way.

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan state news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Cory Linsner on Twitter @Cory_Linsner.

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Which Spartans are most likely to be drafted next year

After 80 years of having a player drafted into the NFL, the 2021 draft saw no Spartans selected for the first time since 1940.

The streak ended. After 80 years of having a player drafted into the NFL, the 2021 draft saw no Spartans selected for the first time since 1940. Shakur Brown had the best chance to get drafted, but ultimately ended up going undrafted.

Now this upcoming football season can set the precedent for starting a new draft streak. Let’s take a look at the players with the best chances to get drafted next season:

Michigan State football RB Elijah Collins reveals 2020 season hampered by COVID-19 diagnosis

MSU’s Elijah Collins had a down year in 2020, but he told the media on Tuesday that he was struggling with a COVID-19 diagnosis.

In his freshman season in 2019, Michigan State football running back Elijah Collins looked like the Spartans’ rusher of the future, recording 988 yards on the ground and scoring 5 touchdowns and looking like one of the few bright spots on a struggling team.

However, in 2020, that production fell off a cliff and Collins only recorded 90 yards and didn’t score a touchdown as he was almost fully replaced in the rotation by Jordon Simmons and Connor Heyward. Now, we have finally learned more about what happened.

On Tuesday, Collins revealed that he missed a lot of time in the offseason, both because of forced quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19, and after contracting the illness himself. He also noted that, after contracting the coronavirus himself, he lost weight and had lingering symptoms that hampered his prep for the season:

It seems like every MSU coach who gets a microphone this offseason has praised Collins and how he looks right now. If last year’s downturn was caused by medical reasons, the Spartans might have one of the best rushers in the Big Ten returning to form.

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MSU vs. Rutgers: Scarlet Knights dominate Spartans, 38-27

Michigan State left a lot to be envied in Mel Tucker’s debut.  Getting blown out by Rutgers by a score of 38-27.

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Well, that was not the best start to season.  Michigan State left a lot to be envied in Mel Tucker’s debut.  Getting blown out by Rutgers by a score of 38-27.  Neither side of the ball was able to string anything together.  Rutgers was by and far the superior team today.

Michigan State snapped a 21-game home opener winning streak, while Rutgers was able to snap a 21-game Big Ten losing streak.

Robert Bondy covered the first half, which was dominated by Rutgers.  Rutgers jumped out to an early 7-0 lead and never looked back in the first half as they took a 28-13 lead into halftime.

It looked like this game might be over after Jordan Simmons, a true freshman, fumbled on the first drive of the second half.  But, the Spartans still had a little fight left in them it seemed.

Perhaps the turning point of the game was after a punt from Bryce Baringer.  During the return from Aron Cruickshank, Chase Kline was able to get down field and head butt into the football and force the fumble that was recovered by Antjuan Simmons.  The next play, Rocky Lombardi was able to find Jalen Nailor along the sidelines who was able to take it all the way for a 30-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 28-20.

The next drive, the Spartans continued to show their defensive prowess as Drew Beesley was able to get around the outside and force a strip sack fumble that was recovered by Naquan Jones.

But then, the Spartans went for it on 4th down and failed, bringing down their 4th down conversion to 1 for 3.  They were in field goal range and had a chance to cut down the lead to five, but elected to go for it.

From there, Rutgers took control and never looked back.  Rutgers drove down the field and was able to kick a field goal to extend the lead to 31-20 early in the 4th quarter.  Then they were able to capitalize on a muffed punt by Nailor, and throw for a 14-yard touchdown to increase the lead to 38-20.

Lombardi drove down the field and was able to find Jayden Reed for a 4-yard touchdown with 1:53 left in the fourth.  But a failed onside kick attempt, effectively ended the game with the final score being 38-27.

Lombardi — who got the start over Theo Day and Payton Thorne — finished with 319 passing yards and three touchdowns and two interceptions on 31-of-44 pass attempts. He also had two fumbles.

Connor Heyward, surprisingly, started the game over Elijah Collins and finished with 18 rushing yards on seven carries and 25 receiving yards.  Collins struggled today and ended the day with 3 rushing yards nine carries while Jordan Simmons had 43 rushing yards on 14 carries.  Simmons also had a fumble.

The receiving corps was led by Reed and Nailor who finished the game with 128 and 84 receiving yards respectively.  Reed had two touchdowns while Nailor had one.  Each of them had a fumble.

Antjuan Simmons was the heart of defense and lead the team in tackles and had a fumble recovery.

Matt Coghlin had a solid day kicking the ball and went 2/2 with a 45-yarder and 48-yarder.

Michigan State turned over the ball a whopping 7 times!  The turnover margin was -4, in what was an abysmal start to the season.  Michigan State will have a lot to look over in practice before, perhaps, the biggest game of the season next week.

MSU’s next game is against Michigan on Halloween at Noon, while Rutgers is at home against Indiana on Halloween at 3:30 EST.

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MSU vs. Rutgers Halftime: Spartans trail 28-13 in rough start to Mel Tucker era

All excitement of Spartan football returning on Saturday faded quickly in a rough first half against Rutgers.

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All excitement of Spartan football returning on Saturday faded quickly in a rough first half against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights lead Michigan State, 28-13, at half — taking advantage of four Spartan turnovers and extremely sloppy play from MSU in the opening half of the Mel Tucker era.

Michigan State looked like a team that is working in a bunch of new players into a brand new coaching scheme, with an extremely sloppy first half on Saturday. It appeared throughout most of the half that Michigan State was not on the same page and couldn’t get out of their own way at times.

Things couldn’t have gone much worse for the Spartans on both sides of the ball to start the game — falling behind 14-0 early in the 1st quarter.

The game started off with Rutgers going right down the field on the opening drive of the Mel Tucker era. The Scarlet Knights struck first when Isaih Pacheco found the end zone from 12 yards out, giving Rutgers an early 7-0 lead. Pacheco’s touchdown run completed a 10-play, 75-yard drive.

MSU would then fumble on each of its next two drives, with the second fumble coming on a strip-sack of Rocky Lombardi. That fumble gave the Scarlet Knights the ball on the one-yard line, making it easy for Rutgers to add to its lead with quarterback Johnny Langan scoring.

Michigan State would respond right before the end of the first quarter on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Lombardi to newcomer Jayden Reed. The play came on 4th down and 1 to go, with Reed running a quick out route, breaking a tackle and sprinting to the endzone.

Rutgers would respond in the 2nd quarter after another Lombardi turnover — this time an interception — gave the Scarlet Knights a short field. Noah Vedral scored on a 24-yard quarterback draw to make it 21-7.

Michigan State would cut into the Scarlet Knight’s lead with a 45-yard field goal from Matt Coghlin. That field goal came following a Shakur Brown interception — which was originally returned for a touchdown but was brought back because of a Spartan penalty.

However, Rutgers would again respond — completing an impressive two-minute drill that was capped off with another Pacheco touchdown. His three-yard scored came with 36 seconds left in the half.

The Spartans were able to put together a two-minute drill themselves, with Coghlin getting it back to a two-score game with a 48-yard field goal to end the half.

Michigan State outgained Rutgers in the first half with 197 to 166 total yards. However, MSU finished the half with 52 penalty yards.

Lombardi — who got the start over Theo Day and Payton Thorne — finished the half with 153 passing yards and one touchdown and one interception on 14-of-20 pass attempts.

Potentially the only bright spot of the first half came in true freshman running Jordon Simmons — who led the Spartans rushing attack with 43 yards on nine carries.

Reed also showed some glimpses of how good he could be — racking up 82 yards and one touchdown on seven receptions — but he also had two fumbles and a drop on what would have been a big gain.

Michigan State will receive the kickoff to start the second half and will need to get it going quickly if Tucker is going to start his career with a victory.

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Michigan State RB Elijah Collins named to Maxwell Award Watchlist

Michigan State RB Elijah Collins has been named to the Maxwell Award Watchlist. Read more details about this award and Collins here.

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Last season, Elijah Collins became a household name amongst Spartan Football fans. Now, the Michigan State RB has been named to the Maxwell Award Watchlist.

The Maxwell Award is given out every year to a college football player judged to be the best all-around in the United States. The Award is judged by the National Collegiate Athletic Association head coaches, a panel of sportscasters and sportswriters, and the membership of the Maxwell Football Club.

The Maxwell Award is named after Robert “Tiny” Maxwell. Last year, the Maxwell Award was handed out to Joe Burrow. The year before, Tua Tagovailoa. Elijah Collins is in great company here.